John's Web Page

Garden Journal (2019)

May - July

July 9th: Unfortunately I got sick a few months back, and as part of the recovery process I am not allowed to work in the garden. I was able to get most everything in the ground, except for the bush beans. I am growing a healthy crop of weeds in that part of the garden. And the seed starting failures meant that I have quite a few random tomatoes and peppers from the hmong market. I was in such a hurry to get everything in I don't even know what is planted where.

Also I tried to grow minature cantelopes (Minnesota Midget Melon) in a more orderly fashion than the disaster that happened the first time I tried to grow them.

We'll see how it goes. I have volunteers who have offered to help weed (and who helped get some of the plants in the ground) and do other related stuff for the time being and I am very grateful for that.

So it's all out of my hands now, and I'll hopefully be able to pick it up again in the next couple of weeks.

Seed Starting:

Summary: very cold overcast spring meant winter sowing went very slow. Stuff planted in early March was the only stuff ready, and even then, just barely. And some things, like the Aurora peppers, did very poorly.

Everything planted in early April did even worse, however. I did get some tomatoes but the labels fell off the milk containers, meaning I don't even know what I planted where, or when it came up. Sorry for the incomplete chart below. Roughly, however, I think I am going to shoot for mid February next year. Nasturtiums did GREAT however. And the mystery tomato appears to be Golden King of Siberia.

Plant

Date Started

First Sprout

Stupice

3/8

4/24

Lavender

3/8

Aurora (hot pepper)

3/8

Lancinato Kale

3/8

4/6

Lavender

3/8

Cilantro

3/8

4/20

Cannonball

4/6

Sungold Select

4/6

Lynn of Jones County

4/6

Mystery Tomato (unlabelled seeds)

4/6

Oregano

4/8

4/23

Thyme

4/6

4/23

April

April 6:Literally did nothing for nearly the past month other than peek at the seeds out there. Nothing is sprouting... except today, the Kale started sprouting!

Also, today I finally got some time and planted out nearly everything else (took several hours)

Ozark Sweet Snack Pepper (2019)

Joe's Long Cayenne (2019)

Aji Cristal (2019)

Jimmy Nardello's (2019)

Mystery Tomato Seeds (I saved these last year, maybe the year before, I don't remember what kind of seeds they are or anything) (????)

Sungold Select (2019)

Lynn of Jones County (2019)

Cannonball (tomato) (2019)

Basil (2018, random Costco)

Parsley (2018, random Costco)

Thyme (2018, random Costco)

Nasturtiums (2017, Seed Savers)

March

March 10: Here's the breakdown of the actual orders I sent out:

Seed Treasures

Dill

Happy Mixed Colors Radish

Cannonball Tomato

Sungold Select Tomato

Lynn of Jones County Tomato

Ozark Sweet Snack Pepper

Jimmy Nardello's Pepper

Seed Savers Exchange

March 7: I got sick of not having my seed order in yet. I picked up a 6 pack of mixed herb seeds from Costco last year, and I was going to winter sow those today but I couldn't find them. So I just decided to use some seeds from previous years. Here's what I planted today, with the year of the seeds, and where I bought them, for reference.

Tolli's Sweet Italian Pepper, 2016 (Seed Savers)

Stupice Tomato, 2016 (Seed Savers)

Cilantro, 2017 or 2018 (Walmart, mix of 2 generic brands)

Aurora Peppers, 2017 (Seed Savers)

True Lavender, 2017 (Walmart, Burpee brand)

Lancinato Kale, 2016 (Seed Savers)

March 2: Planning time! I should be winter sowing by now but as usual I am a bit late. Time to figure out my seed order.

(Edit: I deleted a bunch of rambling on where I get my seeds. I prefer to get them from Midwest seed companies, because I am in the midwest. Read Joseph Lofthouse on adaptivar landraces, specifically, search on the page for "Oregon" for my thinking on why it's important to get seeds adapted to your local climate when possible. But sometimes I'll see something interesting in the store and I'll just get it because it looks interesting.)

Here's my plan of what I'm getting/growing this year, and where I'm planning on getting it. Haven't put in the order yet though, this is just the plan. I'll make a new post with the actual things that I get when I get them.

Seed Treasures

Dill

Happy Mixed Colors radish

Cannonball Tomato

Sungold Select Tomato

Lynn of Jones County (Tomato)

Pepper: Ozark Sweet Snack

Pepper: Jimmy Nardellos

Kale: lancinato (Peggy: if you want this, I got a spot for it)

Seed Savers

Stupice Tomato

Tolli's sweet italian pepper

Joe's long cayenne pepper

Locally, as started plants

Hot peppers, various kinds

Cucumbers

Mystery seeds

I have some old tomato and pepper seeds, I don't even know what kind they are, all I know is that I grew them myself in my own garden, and they looked interesting enough to save seed from in the past.